Electromagnetic or solenoid valves for the dual flow control of a medium of gas or fluid, commonly known as three-way valves, can be found in the art of valves. For example, the MAGNETICALLY OPERATED VALVE of U.S. Pat. No. 3,203,447 by W. C. Bremner etal, 1965 is a three-way valve that operates differently than the THREE-WAY MAGNETIC VALVE of U.S. Pat. No. 2,934,090 by J. G. Kenann etal, 1955. However, these are both valves design to operate off an electromagnet or solenoid singularly. Whereas, the dual acting solenoid valve (DASV) of the present invention is designed to operate two valves simultaneously off of one electromagnet or solenoid, regardless of the number of flow paths of the medium the valve controls. However, the valves that can be used in the present invention needs external accessibility to the stem or shaft that is part of the valve's moving member that controls the flow of the medium. That is, valves like U.S. Pat. No. 3,203,447, wherein the armature r plunger) is enclosed in the device, cannot be used in the present invention, nor is U.S. Pat. No. 3,203,447 designed operate two other valves with its armature. Valves like the three-way valve of U.S. Pat. No. 2,934,090 having a stem (or extension) or the two-way valve of VALVE WITH MAGNETIC ACTUATOR of U.S. Pat. No. 3,368,791 by D. L. Wells, 1964 having an accessible end portion are usable in the present invention.
The DASV of the present invention, uses a bi-stable permanent magnet actuator technique referred to as a Dual Position Latching Solenoid (DPLS) as it has similarity to the DUAL POSITION LATCHING SOLENOID of U.S. Pat. No. 3,022,450 by W. E. Chase, 1958, which contains a solenoid or one or more control coils to cause movement of an armature, a permanent magnet that supplies a hi-stable magnetic flux for alternately magnetically latching the armature against one of two poles, and uses a rapid power pulse to the control coil that allows the power to only be turned on during movement of the armature; making the DPLS energy efficient over conventional solenoids as in U.S. Pat. No. 2,934,090 or U.S. Pat. No. 3,368,791 and possibly over permanent magnet solenoids used in the art of valves. Further, the control coil and permanent magnet arrangement in a DPLS provides a more compact package over the design of conventional solenoids and permanent magnet solenoids of the same magnetic holding force used in the art of valves.
For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,203,447 the flux from the control coil is used to repel the magnet armature and in conventional permanent magnet solenoids the flux from the control coil adds or subtracts from the magnetic flux from the permanent magnet, both requiring the force from the magnetic flux to be low in order to keep the coil and thus the input power low. In a DPLS, the flux from the control coil causes the flux from the permanent magnet to be redirected or diverted between one of two paths in the surrounding magnetic material; requiring little power to produce the two magnetic latching positions that provide a balanced bi-directional magnetic force at each latching position. Such that, a DPLS can be designed to have magnetic latching or holding forces against the pressure of the medium much higher than in valves like U.S. Pat. No. 2,934,090 or U.S. Pat. No. 3,368,791 or similar valves with control coils or solenoids of the same size, while requiring lower pulsed power due to the bi-stable dual flux path nature caused by the permanent magnet's position in the DPLS.
To rapidly divert the path of the flux from the permanent magnet in a DPLS without increasing the solenoid or control coils, a pulse capacitor power system is needed. A pulse capacitor power system differs in power delivery from the pass-through capacitive mode shown in FIG. 3 of U.S. Pat. No. 3,203,447, the rectified AC mode of FIG. 13 of U.S. Pat. No. 3,203,447, or the direct battery switch mode in U.S. Pat. No. 3,022,450. The difference is due to the fact that in a pulse capacitor power system, the control coils can be charged to the output voltage before turning on a switch to pass the activation current to ground. That is, in the pass-through capacitive mode of FIG. 3 of U.S. Pat. No. 3,203,447 the capacitor is charged up to the output voltage after switching, in the rectified AC mode of FIG. 13 of U.S. Pat. No. 3,203,447 the activation current is time varying being half off during a cycle, and in U.S. Pat. No. 3,022,450 the direct battery switch mode is known to be slower than a pulsed capacitive mode, such that a battery requires a faster switch to be used to prevent the current from overheating the control coils, whereas the capacitor discharges its power in a rapid pulse. In General, these other patented devices show power circuits that are slower to activate and/or require higher power input verse a pulse capacitor power system.
A pulse capacitor power system developed to power a DPLS is the BI-STABLE PERMANENT MAGNET ACTIVATION SYSTEM (BSPMAS) of U.S. Pat. No. 9,343,216. Together the DPLS and BSPMAS provide a compact, energy efficient and versatile power method for providing the reciprocate actuation required by the present invention.